This is the young person's voice on their own record: what they want, how they feel, what matters to them. Inspectors look for it, and for what the team did about it.

Open the young person, then Wishes & feelings under Care, health & education. The page describes itself as "Wishes & feelings — what the child wants, how they feel, and what matters to them. Evidences participation for inspections."

Log an entry

Select Log entry and fill in:

When recorded — defaults to now
What they said, want, or feel — required. The prompt is "In their own words as much as possible…", and that is the point of the field. Write what they said, not your summary of it.
Themes — optional free text, e.g. home, family, education, future
Indicates a risk or disclosure — a switch, off by default
Staff response — optional. How the team responded and what was done.

The modal is headed Log wishes & feelings. Save with Log entry; on an existing entry the modal is headed Update entry and saves with Save entry.

You can leave Staff response blank and come back to it. Update reopens the entry, and changing one field leaves the others alone. That is the "you said, we did" half of the record.

If it indicates a risk or a disclosure

Turn the switch on and ARC shows: "Tell the manager / DSL promptly — this may need escalating to a safeguarding concern or incident."

Take that literally. ARC does not tell anyone for you. Turning the switch on tags the entry with an amber Risk flagged badge in the list. It sends no notification, raises no concern and puts nothing on anyone's dashboard. Telling the manager or DSL is something you do, in person, now.

If it belongs in the safeguarding record, raise it there as well — this entry is not a substitute.

Manager sign-off

A manager sees Sign off on any entry not already signed off. It confirms the entry has been read, can only be done once, and adds a green Signed off badge with Signed off by [name]. ARC refuses a repeat with "This entry has already been signed off."

Anyone below manager does not see the button, and the server refuses them with "Only managers can sign off wishes and feelings entries."

If the entry changed after the manager opened it, ARC refuses and asks them to reload: "This record has changed since you opened it. Reload to see the latest version before you sign it off or send it back."

Sending an entry back, or undoing a sign-off

A manager has two more buttons on an entry.

Send back — opens Send back to staff. The manager chooses Send to (a member of the home; the person who created the entry is pre-selected) and writes What is needed?. Both are required. That person gets an email, a notification and a dashboard alert, and the alert stays until they resubmit. They edit the entry and select Submit for review again. While it is with them it cannot be sent back again. The note is shown to the person it was sent to and to managers, not to other staff.
Undo sign-off — opens Undo sign-off and asks Why are you undoing the sign-off? (required). The entry goes back to awaiting review, and the signed-off version is kept in its version history.

Send back is offered on an entry that is not signed off; Undo sign-off on one that is. ARC refuses a send-back on a signed-off record ("This record is signed off. Undo the sign-off first, then send it back."). The person it was sent to, or a manager, can resubmit it.

Nothing signed is overwritten: each step is recorded as a version with who did it and why. Edits made after a sign-off are allowed, and managers see "Edited since it was signed off — the changes are in its version history."

Who can write and edit

Any member of the home can log an entry and update any entry — including someone else's. Only sign-off is reserved.